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The Inferential-Expressive Trade-Off: A Case Study of Tabular Representations

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Diagrammatic Representation and Inference (Diagrams 2002)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 2317))

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Abstract

Many graphical systems (e.g., Euler diagrams, maps, pictorial images, and even tables) support efficient inferences or rich presentation of information apparently at the expense of expressive flexibility. This association of inferential efficiency, expressive richness, and expressive inflexibility in a graphical system has been pointed out by various researchers (e.g., Sloman [1], Stenning and Oberlander [2]). This paper investigates the semantic mechanism of the association by closely examining a particular system of tabular representations, which, despite its simplicity, clearly exhibits all those opposing functional traits. Using a semantic framework of channel theory (Barwise and Seligman [3]), we will show that the common mechanism is a parallelism between abstraction relations in represented properties and in representing properties.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Knowledge Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 1-1 Asahi-dai, Tatsunokuchi, Nomi-gun, 923-1292, Ishikawa, Japan

    Atsushi Shimojima

Authors
  1. Atsushi Shimojima
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, 93106, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Mary Hegarty

  2. School of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Monash University, Clayton Campus, Wellington Road, 3800, Victoria, Australia

    Bernd Meyer

  3. Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Auburn University, 107 Dunstan Hall, 36849, Auburn, AL, USA

    N. Hari Narayanan

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© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Shimojima, A. (2002). The Inferential-Expressive Trade-Off: A Case Study of Tabular Representations. In: Hegarty, M., Meyer, B., Narayanan, N.H. (eds) Diagrammatic Representation and Inference. Diagrams 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2317. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46037-3_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46037-3_16

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-43561-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-46037-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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